‘Fight’ behind Wigan Athletic promotion push

The on-loan Newcastle defender returned to the side for the midweek clash against Fleetwood, and helped Latics record a 2-0 victory at the DW Stadium.

Curtis Tilt was the man to miss out, although he made a late appearance off the bench to help secure the clean sheet.

And Watts says the quality of the whole squad will be crucial between now and April 30.

“We’ve got such a great squad and everyone is fighting for a place," he said.

"Every single game, we’ve got 18 players, and we’ve even got some very good players not even in the squad.“When it was my chance to perform, I was ready to go and did the best I could.”

Latics got back to winning ways thanks to goals from Will Keane (penalty) and James McClean, who was later sent off.

Watts felt it was the perfect response to the disappointing weekend setback against Sunderland.

“With us not getting the result on Saturday, we wanted to put it right and I thought we put on a good display," he said.

"We were solid, compact and managed to get the three points.“We knew we needed to have high energy levels and really take the game to them.

"Every time the ball went out, we wanted to get the ball back in-play as quickly as we could.“I think with this team, with games coming every Saturday-Tuesday, we don’t get too high or low, and that’s why we can bounce back as we don’t get emotionally attached to results."We’ve got a lot of senior lads in the team and to bounce back like that wasn’t a surprise to me because of the group we’ve got.

“The message from within all season has been that every single game is a big game.

"The three points we were getting back in September and October is the reason why we are where we are in the table now.“Saturday (against Wimbledon) is going to be another game for us to go and get three points and to keep going in the right direction.”